


Lightning

by pretty_mr_sanders (shipit)



Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: Body Positivity, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, body negativity, insecure!Patton, sex mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 03:18:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12123372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipit/pseuds/pretty_mr_sanders
Summary: Patton has stretch marks.





	Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> warnings are in the tags

When they first appeared, they were light and barely visible. Patton spent an hour tracing his fingers over the marks and wondering what they were. Over time, he watched them get darker, especially on his thighs and his hips. It never occurred to him that they were something to hate, until someone told him they were.

Thomas was fifteen, and during a school musical, his shirt rode up on stage. After opening night, the cast were talking to audience members, and someone told Thomas that he could go to the pharmacy and get a cream to make them fade. At first, Thomas was shocked, but he went home that night and cried for two hours. The entire time, Patton sat beside him and cried with him.

For a while after that, Patton’s fine again. One person’s opinion shouldn’t define how he feels. Lots of people have stretch marks, and it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s fat. They just mean he’s grown a little too quickly, and like his freckles, stretch marks are a sign he’s lived. Eventually, they’re back to being just another thing on his body.

A few years later, Thomas loses his virginity. His boyfriend sits up and says, “You know you have stretch marks, right?”

“Yeah, and?”

Thomas’ boyfriend shrugs. “It’s kinda gross, you know? 

This time, the words sting far more than Thomas or Patton would care to admit. Someone who they both love with everything they have just told them that stretch marks are something to be ashamed of. Two people wouldn’t both lie, right? Lying is wrong. Dejected and ashamed, he learns to keep them covered at all times. He won’t go swimming without a shirt, which no one questions, and Patton is never in anything short enough to reveal the marks on his thighs. When he showers, he’s careful not to stare at them for two long.

It isn’t until Patton starts hanging out with Virgil more that he begins to see them in a more positive light. Sometimes, when in order to reach something, Virgil stands on his toes and his shirt rides up. It almost always reveals long purple squiggly lines running on the sides of his hips. They look similar to Patton’s, but darker and a little bigger.The last time Patton saw those marks and thought they were cool, he didn’t know what they were. But now, he’s almost wondrous every time he sees Virgil’s stretch marks.

A couple months after the first time Patton sees, he and Virgil are laying on the couch together, watching Black Cauldron. Virgil is draped over Patton, practically laying on him, while Pat traces mindless shapes on his hip. Eventually, his fingers skate beneath Virgil’s shirt. Virgil suddenly sits up and stares at Patton.

There’s a moment where Patton’s terrified he’s done something wrong, before Virgil lifts his shirt up and shows points at the stretch marks. “Reminds me- look, I have lightning on me! How neat is that?”

“Super neat. Matches your  _electric_  personality.”

Virgil gives one of his rare laughs, which Patton won’t admit to being proud of causing.

At that moment, Logan wanders into the commons. “Virgil, you do realize those are actually-”

He cuts himself off at the glare from Patton.

“Really cool lightning marks. Or even tiger stripes.”

Once again, Virgil’s face lights up and he excitedly tells Patton that they’re on his thighs and there’s a couple dark on his lower stomach too. And after over ten years of doubt, Patton really doesn’t feel so bad about his stretch marks anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is coincidentally also pretty-mr-sanders


End file.
